FARK.com: (7425340) It's bad enough you get involved in a crash that totals your SUV, but it's even worse when the towing company finds your memory card full of child porn

If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

		It's bad enough you get involved in a crash that totals your SUV, but it's even worse when the towing company finds your memory card full of child porn ( sun-sentinel.com)		38
		More: Sick, SUV, child pornography, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Palm Beach Gardens, emergency vehicle lighting, North Palm Beach, credit card numbers, tow

• • •

9642 clicks; posted to Main » on 09 Nov 2012 at 1:32 PM (5 years ago) | Favorite | share:

Share this link:

URL:

https://fark.com/go/7425340

Bookmark:

Article Comments close

Voting Results (Smartest)

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh voting results for Smartest or Funniest or Return to comments

Krieghund

2012-11-08 11:30:43 PM

4 votes:

I'm not crying for the dude that got caught, but WTH was the towing company doing looking at a SD card he left in his car?

omnimancer28

2012-11-09 01:39:09 PM

3 votes:

signaljammer: Our hero was an idiot to admit ownership of the SD card. Be nice to the cops, but tell them nothing.

This. There is no chain of custody. The owner could just as easily claim that the SD card was dropped by the person who towed the car.

omnimancer28

2012-11-09 01:37:12 PM

3 votes:

SurfaceTension: Happy Hours: Seems like a pretty good scam owning a storage yard. About 20 years ago my car was towed because it was illegally parked. So were about 100 other cars. After a lot of walking and only a few hours in "storage" I paid about $70 to get my car out of the lot. I never bothered to pay the parking ticket which was only a fraction of the cost to get it out of the impound lot. Fark that.

Not saying that anyone should ever do this, but while in the impound lot, the cars are under the custody of the towing company, right? If someone was to come along and, say, spray a bunch of the cars with paint balls, then wouldn't the towing company/storage yard be responsible for fixing or repainting all the cars? I mean, not that those places deserve it or anything. They're just performing a public service without any malicious intent at all, right? Right?

No. Every single one of these places has a clause in the agreement to take your car out of impound that basically says "we are not responsible for any damages to your car while it was on this lot". If you want your car back, you sign. If not, they charge you a hundred bucks a day while you complain that it is unfair.

TV's Vinnie

2012-11-08 11:23:43 PM

3 votes:

Why don't these morons understand that being caught in possession like this can literally ruin their life in a heartbeat. Hide that sh*t unless you want to go to jail and then end up sleeping under a highway overpass for the rest of your life, you stupid dumbfarks!!

DROxINxTHExWIND

2012-11-09 01:50:09 PM

2 votes:

TV's Vinnie: Why don't these morons understand that being caught in possession like this can literally ruin their life in a heartbeat. Hide that sh*t unless you want to go to jail and then end up sleeping under a highway overpass for the rest of your life, you stupid dumbfarks!!

You sound...creepy.

Honest Bender

2012-11-09 01:40:36 PM

2 votes:

Now, I'm all for child porn criminals getting caught. But how hard is it to encrypt your illegal files?

Ashrams

2012-11-09 01:39:24 PM

2 votes:

Krieghund: I'm not crying for the dude that got caught, but WTH was the towing company doing looking at a SD card he left in his car?

What any guy would do who found a memory card - Look for porn.

skullkrusher

2012-11-09 01:35:22 PM

2 votes:

In a related story, All Florida Towing will go through your shiat. Use someone else

Happy Hours

2012-11-09 03:52:30 AM

2 votes:

Krieghund: I'm not crying for the dude that got caught, but WTH was the towing company doing looking at a SD card he left in his car?

That was my Weeners BUT "No further efforts were made by anybody to pay the storage fee and so the vehicle was put up for auction, the arrest report stated."

It doesn't say what the storage fees were but I kind of doubt they were more than the worth of the vehicle. And so if you're going to auction off a vehicle and all of its contents and you come across a memory card just mere curiosity is enough to see what is on it.

Seems like a pretty good scam owning a storage yard. About 20 years ago my car was towed because it was illegally parked. So were about 100 other cars. After a lot of walking and only a few hours in "storage" I paid about $70 to get my car out of the lot. I never bothered to pay the parking ticket which was only a fraction of the cost to get it out of the impound lot. Fark that.

The 100 cars is just a wild-ass guess. If it's accurate the tow company grossed about $7000 that day just from that one spot.

TV's Vinnie

2012-11-09 07:01:23 PM

1 vote:

Begoggle: TV's Vinnie: Why don't these morons understand that being caught in possession like this can literally ruin their life in a heartbeat. Hide that sh*t unless you want to go to jail and then end up sleeping under a highway overpass for the rest of your lifeDon't be a pedophile, you stupid dumbfarks!!

FTFY

Agreed. Just was still too tired out from enjoying the election to type down everything or the post could have looked like "don't be a butthole. yeah I like Heineken ain;t nothing like a good Heineken I guess. Gonna go get milk before I keep forgettin. Uh what was I typing oh yeah. Don't be Pedro. yeah. hehe heh heh. farkers'll chuckle at that huh huh."

Endive Wombat

2012-11-09 03:45:00 PM

1 vote:

SirHolo:

A friend of mine lived in an apartment complex in college. Every day cars that were permitted to park there got towed because the towing company said that their permit was not on the rear view mirror, or it was displayed incorrectly - like hanging on the mirror but at a slight angle. These permits also fell off pretty easily, so residents would tape them to the inside of the windshield just in front of the rear view mirror and they still got towed because of "incorrect" display or some other nonsense...

Anyway, there had been a string of these towings so my buddy and his friends invested in some cheepo security cameras and aimed them at the parking lot. Lo and behold they caught the tow truck drivers shaking the cars to make the permits either fall off or become somewhat crooked, then hook them up and tow them. Over the course of about 3 weeks, they saw something like 25 cars get towed.

Then one of the roommates got his car towed. They watched the video and there was the driver, shaking the shiat out of the car. Unbelievable. They called the impound lot and asked to speak with the highest ranking person there and told him what they had on video. He basically said "eat me," you got nothin' on me. So they went to the cops and the local news station. BUSTED hard.

Tens of thousands of dollars of impound fees got refunded, place went out of business and they lost all their wrecking licenses too.

Ghengis_Socrates

2012-11-09 03:40:38 PM

1 vote:

JackieRabbit: No, but it does mean that your hatred of child porn prevents you from getting the point, which is the guy is a complete moron. No one is condoning kiddie porn or those you consume it.

I get that he is a complete moron. More pedos should be like him so they are easier to catch is my point.

The One True TheDavid

2012-11-09 03:34:45 PM

1 vote:

signaljammer:

Our hero was an idiot to admit ownership of the SD card. Be nice to the cops, but tell them nothing.

He apparently didn't even think to say "Officer, the car has not been in my possession for over a month. Somebody could have put that there while it was impounded." What a dummy.

But get this: "Tow company employees also found a gun belt, police lights, bullets and badges in the vehicle, according to the arrest report. No further details about these items were provided."

That sounds fishy enough without the kiddy porn: if he was a LEO the article would presumably have said so. But all that stuff together, well...

Didn't he give his mom a list of things to take from vehicle when she got his stuff from it? "There's a bunch of stuff in the spare tire compartment. PLEASE be sure to get all that out."

Hint: if you must view questionable images on your electronic device, promptly delete them after use. And regardless of what you might get busted for, what you say to the cops is "I wish to speak to an attorney." Nothing else, though you might have to keep repeating it till they get the idea.

This is why I say any felony punishable by more than 5 years in prison, or one involving molesting underaged kids, should be punished by death. There are some people Society should not have to put up with, and the planet's got 5 billion too many people on it anyway. Why warehouse such defectives? "Make room, make room!"

Wasilla Hillbilly

2012-11-09 03:28:39 PM

1 vote:

If images of child porn are illegal why aren't images of someone being murdered? Or an adult being raped? Yeah, that's right. I asked the big question. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?

Ghengis_Socrates

2012-11-09 03:25:47 PM

1 vote:

Stephen_Falken: Stephen_Falken says, shut up genhgis. You sound like a f*cking self-righteous xian. Please go die

I am about the polar opposite of that. I abhor child porn. How does that make me a f*ck?ing self-righteous xian

MagSeven

2012-11-09 03:16:37 PM

1 vote:

NutWrench: Ghengis_Socrates: What is with all the comments about how he could have avoided being caught? It seems some people have been thinking about this quite a bit and I find that a little disturbing. Unless you are a criminal that approves of this activity, please don't make it easier to commit this crime. Thanks.

I think the reaction is more about the rock-hard stupidity of the perpetrator, rather than an endorsement of child porn. Encryption has other, non-porn uses and given the number of bank card and identity thefts, law abiding folks have legitimate reasons to keep their data private.

On an unrelated note, the article mentions that this particular porn was found on an SD card (which is normally used in cameras), rather than a flash drive, which leads me to believe that he is also the one who took the pictures.

I took it to mean microSD like in almost all phones. Everyone usually just calls them SD cards anyway. If it was actually an SD card you've got a good theory.

NutWrench

2012-11-09 03:07:13 PM

1 vote:

Ghengis_Socrates: What is with all the comments about how he could have avoided being caught? It seems some people have been thinking about this quite a bit and I find that a little disturbing. Unless you are a criminal that approves of this activity, please don't make it easier to commit this crime. Thanks.

I think the reaction is more about the rock-hard stupidity of the perpetrator, rather than an endorsement of child porn. Encryption has other, non-porn uses and given the number of bank card and identity thefts, law abiding folks have legitimate reasons to keep their data private.

On an unrelated note, the article mentions that this particular porn was found on an SD card (which is normally used in cameras), rather than a flash drive, which leads me to believe that he is also the one who took the pictures.

SirHolo

2012-11-09 03:02:29 PM

1 vote:

oren0: You can't contract away liability after the fact like that. Tow companies are responsible if they damage your car, and they get sued for this all the time (though they usually win because it's hard to prove that it wasn't already damaged).

CSB: My ex-GF sued a towing company in Chicago and won. They had just slung chains around the tie-rods, bending them, and thereby making the car incredibly difficult to keep on the road.

I think it was one of those mob-owned towing co's, too. They hired a lawyer who forced it to jury trial, but she hung in there, prepared, and won. The opposing lawyer was sweating badly when he handed over the check. We also made sure the judgement was entered into the record (rather than waiving it for a settlement). Very satisfying.

7th Son of a 7th Son

2012-11-09 03:00:25 PM

1 vote:

As a 20+ year resident of Tulsa, I'm all too familiar with Storey Wrecker, and they should be burned to the ground.

namegoeshere

2012-11-09 02:48:41 PM

1 vote:

CeroX: Long story short, i lived in an apartment complex that didn't have garage and would strictly tow any broke down vehicle on the property.

I lived in a similar place. We went on vacation, and flew so we left the car in its regular spot. It got a flat (somehow, mysteriously) shortly after we left, and although it was registered with tags in our space in front of our apartment, they towed it for being broken down. They claim they left a note on the windshield, but since we were out of state, we missed it. We ended up paying towing fees and ten days storage. The bastards. The funny (and of course I mean not funny here) thing was, we got a ride to the airport because we wanted to avoid long term parking fees.

Madame Psychosis

2012-11-09 02:33:28 PM

1 vote:

FTFA: "He allegedly admitted, after being read his rights, that he owned the card and received the child porn images by email, but did not delete them."

receiving something by email =/= taking time to save it to a memory card and taking time to remove said card from device

I'm not buying his wide-eyed "Oh someone just emailed them to me! I didn't know what it was!" excuse. You have to actively choose to save something to a memory card, or it wouldn't be on there. Or is there something I'm not understanding about how memory cards work? (wouldn't surprise me)

Too Pretty For Prison

2012-11-09 02:29:09 PM

1 vote:

He claimed the images were sent to him via email and he simply didn't delete them - as in "this stuff isn't mine". My email client does not automatically copy attachments to an SD card. It's all just a big conspiracy at Microsoft to frame him...yeah, that's the ticket.

halleyscomet

2012-11-09 02:28:31 PM

1 vote:

Honest Bender: Now, I'm all for child porn criminals getting caught. But how hard is it to encrypt your illegal files?
[osx.wdfiles.com image 128x128]

Most cameras don't support encryption of the photos they take. Based on the fact that it was on an SD card and not a thumb drive, and the collection of "Pretend to be a cop" paraphernalia in the car, I suspect this guy took the photos himself, or was loaned the card by someone who did.

The fact that he made NO effort to recover a car that had kiddie porn in it leads me to suspect he's either:

1. A grade A Moron.
2. It wasn't his card and he didn't know about it.

No Such Agency

2012-11-09 02:26:31 PM

1 vote:

JackieRabbit:
Well, there's "I took a picture of my 2 year old in the bath" ... The former kind doesn't bother me, even if technically illegal. The latter kind, on the other hand, is pretty damn evidently wrong.

Taking a pic of your two year old is neither illegal nor child porn.

Thank you for pointing this out. Of course try explaining that to the high school drop-outs working the photo lab at Wal Mart... as any number of people have found out.

Bhruic

2012-11-09 02:26:04 PM

1 vote:

That depends on where you are, and how the law is worded there. In some locales it could be considered as such.

Bhruic

2012-11-09 02:10:22 PM

1 vote:

James F. Campbell: Bhruic: child porn

Bhruic: (and real rapey child porn at that)

o_o

Well, there's "I took a picture of my 2 year old in the bath", or "I took a picture of my 16 year old gf" child porn, and "a picture of a girl between 10 and 12 years old being sexually assaulted by a man" child porn. The former kind doesn't bother me, even if technically illegal. The latter kind, on the other hand, is pretty damn evidently wrong.

Huck And Molly Ziegler

2012-11-09 02:09:45 PM

1 vote:

You'd think someone in possession of an object that could get him in serious legal trouble would have the cautious sense enough to keep it locked within the four walls of his domicile.

Of course, given the nature of this illegal object, it was only a matter of time before he was caught anyway.

Bhruic

2012-11-09 01:58:21 PM

1 vote:

omnimancer28: signaljammer: Our hero was an idiot to admit ownership of the SD card. Be nice to the cops, but tell them nothing.

This. There is no chain of custody. The owner could just as easily claim that the SD card was dropped by the person who towed the car.

That's definitely the approach for innocent people. For people who actually are guilty of having child porn (and real rapey child porn at that), I tend to be glad they are too stupid to consider that strategy.

CeroX

2012-11-09 01:56:22 PM

1 vote:

omnimancer28: Tommy Moo: CeroX: Happy Hours: t doesn't say what the storage fees were but I kind of doubt they were more than the worth of the vehicle.

I lost a s15 Silvia conversion Nissan to a towing company that charged $1000 a day storage fees after someone rear ended me and the company towed the car.

Long story short, i lived in an apartment complex that didn't have garage and would strictly tow any broke down vehicle on the property. Didn't have anywhere else to store it, so when the tow truck showed up and asked where to take it, i didn't have anyplace, and they said they would store it at there place as long as i signed a release of liability form.

Turns out they charge $1k/day for that service

I already didn't have $1000 to get it out after the first day and within a couple of weeks i had to fork over the title to the car.

I went to court to contest the charges, but because i signed a release after the accident i agreed to the fees...

Long story short, always read the fine print on that slip they ask you to sign...

Signing that title over to the smiling owner of the towing company was one of the worst days of my life...

Aren't towing and storage fees set by municipalities? What's to stop a towing company from arbitrarily saying that the impound fee is equal to the full value of the vehicle, and then driving around literally stealing everyone's car?

They are restricted by municipalities or by the state. But he signed a waver which exempted the tow company from that limit.

Correct, the judge told me that had i not signed an agreement and the towing company took it to their lot on their own, then the limit (i believe at the time, was $75/day), but i signed a waiver that was, in effect, a contract agreement for storage

Tom_Slick

2012-11-09 01:55:35 PM

1 vote:

Krieghund: I'm not crying for the dude that got caught, but WTH was the towing company doing looking at a SD card he left in his car?

They were looking for Adult Porn.

/Used to refurb old computers, damn right I did a picture search never found any illegal porn, did find a lot of naked milfs though and a lot of people you would never ever want to see naked.

ConConHead

2012-11-09 01:54:48 PM

1 vote:

I used to work for a repo agency and my job as the secretary was to inventory every item that came out of the cars we nabbed. Thank god none of that included porn.

As for the SD, they probably were going to blank it so they could use it, if the property was never claimed. If people didn't come get their crap we sold it to goodwill or kept it.

/got really nice brand new designer bedset that way

omnimancer28

2012-11-09 01:52:07 PM

1 vote:

Tommy Moo: CeroX: Happy Hours: t doesn't say what the storage fees were but I kind of doubt they were more than the worth of the vehicle.

I lost a s15 Silvia conversion Nissan to a towing company that charged $1000 a day storage fees after someone rear ended me and the company towed the car.

Long story short, i lived in an apartment complex that didn't have garage and would strictly tow any broke down vehicle on the property. Didn't have anywhere else to store it, so when the tow truck showed up and asked where to take it, i didn't have anyplace, and they said they would store it at there place as long as i signed a release of liability form.

Turns out they charge $1k/day for that service

I already didn't have $1000 to get it out after the first day and within a couple of weeks i had to fork over the title to the car.

I went to court to contest the charges, but because i signed a release after the accident i agreed to the fees...

Long story short, always read the fine print on that slip they ask you to sign...

Signing that title over to the smiling owner of the towing company was one of the worst days of my life...

Aren't towing and storage fees set by municipalities? What's to stop a towing company from arbitrarily saying that the impound fee is equal to the full value of the vehicle, and then driving around literally stealing everyone's car?

They are restricted by municipalities or by the state. But he signed a waver which exempted the tow company from that limit.

runescorpio

2012-11-09 01:50:25 PM

1 vote:

CeroX: Happy Hours: t doesn't say what the storage fees were but I kind of doubt they were more than the worth of the vehicle.

I lost a s15 Silvia conversion Nissan to a towing company that charged $1000 a day storage fees after someone rear ended me and the company towed the car.

Long story short, i lived in an apartment complex that didn't have garage and would strictly tow any broke down vehicle on the property. Didn't have anywhere else to store it, so when the tow truck showed up and asked where to take it, i didn't have anyplace, and they said they would store it at there place as long as i signed a release of liability form.

Turns out they charge $1k/day for that service

I already didn't have $1000 to get it out after the first day and within a couple of weeks i had to fork over the title to the car.

I went to court to contest the charges, but because i signed a release after the accident i agreed to the fees...

Long story short, always read the fine print on that slip they ask you to sign...

Signing that title over to the smiling owner of the towing company was one of the worst days of my life...

A can of gas costs less than $100. Second time something gets burned down you cant have insurance coverage on it.
Just sayin.

Also curious if he went in and made a stink beforehand and when asked about if he wanted an sd card they found he was just thinking yeah free sd card.
Would be nice to see a followup.

MagSeven

2012-11-09 01:50:15 PM

1 vote:

Holy shiat. How can that be legal? How did you have enough restraint not to burn that place to the ground and salt the earth it stood on?

CeroX

2012-11-09 01:45:06 PM

1 vote:

Happy Hours: t doesn't say what the storage fees were but I kind of doubt they were more than the worth of the vehicle.

I lost a s15 Silvia conversion Nissan to a towing company that charged $1000 a day storage fees after someone rear ended me and the company towed the car.

Long story short, i lived in an apartment complex that didn't have garage and would strictly tow any broke down vehicle on the property. Didn't have anywhere else to store it, so when the tow truck showed up and asked where to take it, i didn't have anyplace, and they said they would store it at there place as long as i signed a release of liability form.

Turns out they charge $1k/day for that service

I already didn't have $1000 to get it out after the first day and within a couple of weeks i had to fork over the title to the car.

I went to court to contest the charges, but because i signed a release after the accident i agreed to the fees...

Long story short, always read the fine print on that slip they ask you to sign...

Signing that title over to the smiling owner of the towing company was one of the worst days of my life...

The Only Sane Man In Florida

2012-11-09 01:36:46 PM

1 vote:

This is from the sun-sentinel (Florida newspaper) website, and is thus mis-tagged. Please correct this.

signaljammer

2012-11-09 01:36:45 PM

1 vote:

Our hero was an idiot to admit ownership of the SD card. Be nice to the cops, but tell them nothing.

SurfaceTension

2012-11-09 12:24:47 PM

1 vote:

Happy Hours: Seems like a pretty good scam owning a storage yard. About 20 years ago my car was towed because it was illegally parked. So were about 100 other cars. After a lot of walking and only a few hours in "storage" I paid about $70 to get my car out of the lot. I never bothered to pay the parking ticket which was only a fraction of the cost to get it out of the impound lot. Fark that.

Not saying that anyone should ever do this, but while in the impound lot, the cars are under the custody of the towing company, right? If someone was to come along and, say, spray a bunch of the cars with paint balls, then wouldn't the towing company/storage yard be responsible for fixing or repainting all the cars? I mean, not that those places deserve it or anything. They're just performing a public service without any malicious intent at all, right? Right?

Displayed 38 of 38 comments

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

Redisplay/refresh voting results for Smartest or Funniest or Return to comments

This thread is archived, and closed to new comments.

Want to see behind the curtain? Try

It's how we feed the squirrel

learn more | sign up

Report

Advertise on Fark

learn more

Like Fark!

Follow @Fark On Twitter

Headlines of the Week
Fark NotNewsletter

Report

Fark.com

Top Commented

Top Commented ▼

Top Commented
Top Clicked
Top Voted
My Recent Commented
Recent Mentions

Javascript is required to view headlines in widget.

Links are submitted by members of the Fark community.
When community members submit a link, they also write a custom headline for the story.
Other Farkers comment on the links. This is the number of comments. Click here to read them.
You need to create an account to submit links or post comments.
Click here to submit a link.